Faculty

Dawn Bowen
Professor
B.A., Mary Washington College; M.A., University of Maine; Ph.D., Queen’s Universitydbowen@umw.edu; Monroe 311.
Dawn Bowen is fascinated by people and places. She teaches classes in the regional geography of Eastern and Western North America, Latin America, and Geography and Development. She also takes students to Guatemala each spring. Her current research focuses on cultural landscape evolution in Montana and Aruba, heritage tourism in Labrador, and empowerment education among young indigenous women in Guatemala. Current CV (PDF Format) Winner of the 2012 Grellet C. Simpson Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching Winner of the 2016 Mary W. Pinschmidt Award

Caitlin Finlayson
Associate Professor
B.A., Winthrop University; Ph.D., Florida State Universitycfinlay@umw.edu; Monroe 322.
Caitlin Finlayson teaches classes in World Regional Geography, Quantitative Methods, Environment and Society, and the Geography of Religion. Her research focuses on the emotional experiences of people within sacred spaces and the ways in which sacred spaces are created. Current CV (PDF Format)Winner of the 2018 Alumni Association Outstanding Young Faculty Award

Jacqueline Gallagher
Associate Professor and Department Chair
B.Sc., University of Wales, College of Swansea; M.Sc. Memorial University of Newfoundland; Ph.D., University of California, Los Angeles.jgallagh@umw.edu; Monroe 313. Jackie Gallagher’s interests include Quaternary science and geomorphology, particularly the evolution of landscapes over time, as well as field methods, biogeography and the geography of natural hazards. She also teaches mobile geographic information systems and GPS. Current CV (PDF format)

Stephen Hanna
Professor
B.A., Clark University; M.A., University of Vermont; Ph.D., University of Kentuckyshanna@umw.edu; Monroe 312.
Stephen Hanna’s teaching and research interests include critical cartography and GIS, and the interactions of race and memory in the production of tourism destinations. He teaches courses in globalization, cultural landscapes, as well as undergraduate and graduate courses in cartography and geovisualization. Current CV (PDF Format)Winner of a 2016 Waple Faculty Professional Achievement Award

Joseph W. Nicholas
Associate Professor
B.A., Bemidji State University; M.S., University of North Dakota; Ph.D., University of Georgiajnichola@umw.edu; Monroe 314.
Joe Nicholas’s teaching and research interests include Alpine Periglacial Geomorphology, Quaternary Environments, Climatology, and Biogeography. His principal research area has been the La Sal Mountains of southeastern Utah, where he has studied rock glaciers and other talus landforms for clues to Holocene climate change. Current CV (PDF Format)

Melina Patterson
Associate Professor
B.A., Pitzer College; Ph.D., Rutgers Universitympatters@umw.edu; Monroe 324.
Melina Patterson’s research and teaching interests in urban and political geography include the patterns and persistence of racial and economic inequality and struggles for social justice, the intersections of urban and natural processes and spaces, public space, and theories of the modern world economy. Current CV (PDF Format)

Brian R. Rizzo
Associate Professor
B.A., M.A. University of Western Ontario; Ph.D. University of Virginia.rizzo@umw.edu; Monroe 321.
While an undergraduate geography major – decades ago, Brian became involved with a new area of geography that would evolve into Geographic Information Systems (GIS). In the 20+ years since, he has been involved in developing GIS data structures and applications to address a wide range of issues. Brian’s research focus’s on global climate change as it relates to the biogeographic distribution of vegetation and Infrastructure management within a GIS framework. Current CV (PDF format)

Farhang Rouhani
Associate Professor
B.A., University of California; M.A., Ph.D., University of Arizonafrouhani@umw.edu; Monroe 323.
Farhang Rouhani’s teaching and research interests encompass several significant aspects of political, urban, and cultural geographies, including the cultural and political dimensions of globalization; nationalism, transnationalism, and state formation in the Middle East; the geography of telecommunications;and the socio-spatial politics of everyday life. Current CV (PDF Format)

Donald N. Rallis
Professor Emeritus
B.A., B.Sc (Hons) University of the Witwatersrand; M.A., University of Miami; Ph.D., Penn State Universitydnrallis@umw.edu.
Donald Rallis currently resides in Cambodia where he teaches at the American University of Phnom Penh. In addition, he continues to teach World Regional Geography and other courses for UMW online. He blogs on and edits the website RegionalGeography.org, maintains an online photograph collection, and posts videos and short classes online.

Adjunct Faculty

Scott Allen
B.A., Mary Washington College; M.A., State University of New York-Stony Brooks; Ph.D., George Mason Universitycallen3@umw.edu C. Scott Allen is a remote sensing scientist at Zeta Associates. Over the last two decades, he has worked in GIS, GPS, and remote sensing across a wide swath of the geospatial community including federal government, commercial remote sensing, and the telecommunications industry. In addition to longstanding interests in environmental applications of remote sensing, he is currently investigating the use of imaging spectroscopy for personnel search and rescue. He teaches the undergraduate and graduate sections of remote sensing.

Jessica DeWitt

University of Mary Washington (B.A.), University of Toledo (M.S.), West Virginia University (Ph.D.)

Jessica is a geographer working at the U.S. Geological Survey. She uses integrative geospatial-analysis methods to map and monitor mining activity and related land cover or topographic changes in a multitude of international regions. Her teaching interests include introduction to GIS, Introduction to Remote Sensing & Aerial Image Interpretation. Jessica’s current research interests include multi-scalar and multi-source analysis of topographic change, utilizing UAS-derived elevation products and historic topographic maps.

Colleen serves on the Director Team at Camp Hanover, a camp and retreat center in Mechanicsville, VA. She oversees youth and environmental education programs, as well as conservation efforts on the 600+ acre site. Her teaching and activist interests include: human-environment interactions, natural resource conservation and peacemaking. Colleen loves traveling and the outdoors.

Mahesh Rao
(B.S., and M.S.), Agriculture, AP Argic Univ., India; (Ph.D.) Oklahoma State University mrao@umw.edu
Mahesh Rao’s research interests are focused on applications of remote sensing and GIS to understand spatio-temporal dynamics of ecological processes within agricultural and forested ecosystems. Specifically, using an integrated approach involving remote sensing and GIS models, Mahesh conducts research on improved machine-learning techniques of land cover analysis and related change to characterize environmental impacts including climate change.
Currently, as a research scientist at University of Virginia, Mahesh is engaged in mapping and modeling historical trends in urbanization/vegetation loss within the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi as part of the Yamuna River Project
(www.yamunariverproject.org).

Justin RobersonB.A., University of Oklahoma; M.S., University of South Carolinajroberso@umw.edu
Justin is the GIS Coordinator for the Fairfax County Park Authority in Northern Virginia. He serves as the Park Authority’s geospatial technology expert and coordinates, develops and maintains all agency geospatial data, applications, tools and equipment to meet the agency’s mission and goals. Justin presently teaches the Introduction to GIS course and has previously taught Introduction to Physical Geography and Plant Taxonomy courses. His research in graduate school focused on landscape ecology and biogeography, with an emphasis on species distribution modeling and vegetation community ecology. In his free time, he enjoys hiking with his dog and relaxing on the couch with his cat.

Douglas P. Stanley
B.A., Mary Washington College; M.U.R.P., Virginia Commonwealth University; Graduate Certificate, Shenandoah Universitydstanley@umw.edu
Doug Stanley’s teaching interests are in urban and regional planning and the impacts of planning on the growth patterns, aesthetics, and quality of life of localities. He teaches Introduction to Urban Planning and Planning Seminar.

Josh Wixom
B.A., SUNY Geneseo; M.A., Ph.D., West Virginia Universityjwixom@umw.edu
Josh is a geographer working at the U.S. Census Bureau. He loves teaching undergrads about physical geography and human-environment interaction. His other teaching interests include climate change, science communication, education, and literacy, and science and technology studies. Josh’s research interests focus on the societal impacts of climate change, science communication and political policy, and the role citizen science plays in scientific literacy. In his free time, Josh enjoys hiking, running, reading, and soccer.